1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an external character management apparatus, and more particularly, to an external character management apparatus for collectively managing external characters of multiple platforms using different code systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there has been a distributed system in which a plurality of information processing apparatus operating on different platforms are interconnected via a network, and in the existing circumstances, different platforms in such a distributed system use respective different character code systems. Large computers use, for example, JEF (Japanese processing Extended Feature) code system, workstations such as UNIX (registered trademark used in the U.S.A. and other countries under license of X/Open Co., Ltd.) machines use EUC (extended UNIX code) system, and in personal computers, Shift JIS code system is dominant. The difference between these code systems lies in how characters, which are each represented by a 1-, 2- or 3-byte character code, are assigned their character codes. In all cases, the code system has a JIS area including standardized character sets such as a non-Kanji (non-Chinese character) set, a JIS level-1 Kanji set and a JIS level-2 Kanji set. However, in the case where customers' information is to be managed by a company or information about the names of people is to be managed by a government, there naturally exist a large number of characters that are outside the coverage of the standardized character sets. For such characters and non-standardized characters or graphics such as corporate logos, an external character area is prepared to permit users to freely define and record external characters for later use, and by using the external characters defined with respect to individual platforms, non-JIS Kanji characters and logotypes can be displayed and printed on platforms using different code systems.
In the case of characters of the standardized character sets, each of the code systems has systematic correspondences between characters and their character codes; therefore, as far as the standardized character sets are used, characters may be subjected to code conversion in accordance with a predetermined conversion rule so that they can be used in common by different systems. For external characters, on the other hand, if a distributed system is constructed by a plurality of platforms using different code systems, external characters defined with respect to one code system must be defined in a similar manner with respect to all code systems used in the distributed system. Therefore, in the case where a new external character is created somewhere in the distributed system, its character code can be used directly insofar as the code system used is the same. For a system using a different code system, however, an external character corresponding to the created one must be recorded in the external character area allocated to this system, and moreover, to actually use the recorded external character, it must be subjected to code conversion.
In a conventional system such as the system disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 7-271777, for example, when a character string is to be sent from one platform to another using a different code system, character patterns are read from a font file, code conversion from the character codes assigned to these character patterns to character codes for the receiving side is carried out by means of a code conversion table, and the converted character codes are sent. Accordingly, external characters can be used consistently among platforms using different code systems.
Conventionally, external characters prepared taking account of use on multiple platforms using different code systems have been distributed, and also code conversion of such external characters is performed. However, character patterns for display or printing are converted mechanically in accordance with the format and size of the code system which a distributee's system uses; generally, therefore, the quality of characters after the conversion is poor. For example, when dot-matrix character patterns are converted from one size to another, bits are mechanically added or reduced to change the size, and therefore, in some cases, extraordinary patterns result from the conversion depending on the character pattern. Accordingly, the distributee is required to check the quality of converted characters, which means that in each of distributees' systems, external characters after the conversion must be printed or displayed to determine their quality.
If, as a result of the trial printing or display of converted external characters on a distributee's system, it is found that some external characters need reshaping, an external character editor of the system must be started to reshape such external characters by means of the editor. Since the method of operating external character editors differs from system to system, a person in charge of managing external characters must master operating the external character editors of all systems.
According to the conventional procedure, therefore, no particular problem arises in the case where external characters are introduced collectively when systems are installed, but where external characters are newly added in existing systems, all systems must be taken care of, even if only several characters are added, presenting a problem that a change in the operational environment cannot be efficiently coped with.